Thousand Miles
by Hareta
Summary: If I could fall into the sky...After the 'microchip incident', Kuroudo plays the song "Thousand Miles" in a piano competition. Will Kyousuke come?


Standard Disclaimers Applied. I do _not_ own Crush Gear Turbo, its characters, gears, and storyline. Neither do I own the song Thousand Miles. This fanfiction was written purely for fun and am not making any money out of it. So please kindly don't sue me.

* * *

**Thousand Miles**  
_After helping him extensively prepare for it, Kuroudo can only hope Kyousuke comes to hear him play his song._

* * *

His hands shook and looked paler than they had ever been. No matter. He knew full well that he could do this. All the players that had been before him were all good, but without a trace of arrogance he could say that he was better. It was just that small matter of someone not being there for him that made his heart feel like it was breaking into a million pieces. That person was the one who always listened to him, stuck around to hear him practice, praised him profusely, and knocked sense into him during the many times he started to think he was a try-hard incompetent fool. But now, how could he expect that person to show up when it had been he who drove him away?   
  
He parted the dark curtains a little and allowed a thin strip of light to filter into the dark side-stage. He then sneaked a peek through the small gap he had made at the audience below. All the seats in the large auditorium were occupied and he could even see some parents and older siblings supporting children sitting on their laps. That didn't bother him, not much. Years in the limelight of Crush Gear fighting had beaten out what little stage-fright he had to begin with. A single look confirmed the presence of the people closest to him, and the absence of one.   
  
The last notes of the piece faded away into silence and light applause followed it. The contestant took his bow and disappeared from view of the audience as he walked into the wings, passing the host as he stepped out and took center-stage. He began all at once with a short comment on the just finished performance and plunged right ahead into an introduction of the next participant, him.   
  
Kuroudo paced into the light. The host exchanged glances with him before disappearing offstage again. There was polite clapping, the loudest of which came from the third row from the stage. He smiled at the people that sat there, his mother, father, and Griffon Japan's key fighters. What was now dubbed 'the microchip incident' happened a little over three months ago and though things were still upon the edge of a knife, and he still had not yet come back to the team, he and Griffon were in fairly good terms. After all, the team had been his friends ever since he moved to Japan.   
  
Avril and his other best mates in France called earlier that night and wished him luck. His rich childhood enemy, Vichie, who had introduced him to Crush Gear did too, although their conversation eventually led to the topic of what happened three months ago, and he then had to cut the call short, not in the mood to speak of it. In his heart he knew all of them would be with him this night, in spirit if not physically, as corny as that may sound.   
  
So all of his friends were here tonight to support him.   
  
Except one.   
  
He made a perfect, deep, elegant bow and took his seat on the piano stool. The grand piano that stood before him was a true masterpiece that he could tell, as it was almost an exact replica of the one he played at home. Its beautiful black color contrasted powerfully against its white keys. Ivory keys that felt cold to his touch for some reason, but he ignored it and started to play. And then, he started to sing.   
  
_"Making my way downtown  
Walking fast, faces past  
And I'm homebound"_   
  
How could have things ended so fast? It felt as if he had just met Kyousuke yesterday, yet at the same time it seemed as if he had known him all his life. With the exception of his days with his French group, he couldn't clearly remember a day without him as his best friend, at his side. That was, before three months ago.   
  
_"Staring blankly ahead  
Just making my way,  
Making my way through the crowd"_   
  
The silence was the same, not the same crowd but the same silence as they watched him, watched his every move. Though he continued to perform, he barely felt the keys beneath his fingers. The piano itself blurred from his sight and he sat not on a soft seated four-legged bench but on one attached to the wall underneath what seemed to be a shed. On a table next to him was Kyousuke, glasses slipping down his nose as he bent over a purple Crush Gear and worked on it furiously.   
  
_"And I need you  
And I miss you"_   
  
Everything came crashing down three months ago, and the conclusion, the end to everything in the past five years, came so sudden. Just a few words, which signified what the other considered his betrayal, in a game that was finished before it even started.   
  
_"And now I wonder"_   
  
The present shifted back into his vision and it took his everything to prevent his voice from shaking. He managed to retain the light-hearted tone of the song, but, one way or another, his words were still heavily laced with sadness.   
  
_"If I can fall into the sky  
Do you think time would pass me by?  
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles  
If I can just see you tonight"_   
  
He looked down at his hands and like an apparition he saw another pair over them, the haunting memory of his mother sitting next to him days after as he practiced his piece. He couldn't continue then, couldn't move and play the next note, but he could now although the keys beneath his fingers felt as cold as they did that night. Her words and his reply echoed inside his head, the silence of the audience not helping a bit.   
  
_"There's always times like this  
When I think of you  
And wonder if you ever think of me"_   
  
"Avril called. They saw the fight and are wondering...Kuroudo, are you sure about this? Why stop all of a sudden? Your team needs you. And you need them, and gearfighting. I can see it in your eyes."   
  
_"When everything so wrong  
And I don't belong  
Living in your precious memory"_   
  
"Kaasan, I just want to focus on my kendo training, nothing else. They're a distraction."   
  
_"'Cause I need you  
And I miss you"_   
  
And her eyes had held pity in them then.   
  
_"And now I wonder"_   
  
He looked up and searched for her in the crowd, desperately although right from the beginning he had already known where she sat, third row from the stage. Her Mediterranean blue eyes met his similarly colored ones and they held now nothing but encouragement for him to continue in them. She knew, he realized in some way, she somehow knew what storm raged on inside him. And the knowledge that someone understood helped him to go on.   
  
_"If I can fall into the sky  
Do you think time would pass me by?  
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles  
If I can just see you tonight"_   
  
He looked up to examine his audience. There were three, maybe four, times as much as the most he had ever seen in a crushgear fight. He knew that the number of participants for the piano competition was around a hundred so the crowd turn-out didn't surprise him that much. At least, almost all the seats have already been occupied and people have stopped filing in. His eyes however still lingered towards one of the smaller side entrances nearer to the stage where the people with special passes entered from, drawn there for some reason. And the moment they settled on the small dark figure standing there, he knew why.   
  
_"And I...I...don't want to let you know"_   
  
He didn't know how or why but he just...knew. It could have been anyone but he knew it was Kyousuke who stood there, leaning against the wall and turned towards the stage. A multitude of eyes were on him but he felt only a single pair, Kyousuke's. And he was glad because the gaze he held now...   
  
_"I...I...drown in your memory"_   
  
...wasn't his piercing obsidian glare.   
  
_"I...I...don't want to lock this door"_   
  
It wasn't hostile, but it wasn't exactly friendly or encouraging either. But Kuroudo can accept that. As long as he was here…What mattered was that he came. When it seemed so impossible, whereas his absence was expected and deemed reasonable…he still came.   
  
_"I...I...don't"_   
  
He moved. Kuroudo started when he glimpsed the shadows shift. His hands froze over the keys-- he couldn't move them and he neither remembered what the next notes were nor wanted to make a mistake. The figure was moving towards light and in a few seconds he would know for sure if it was really him.   
  
_"…"_   
  
A black tuxedo, a mop of black hair unusually neat, glasses reflecting light off its surface and then…and then his sapphire blue eyes met his onyx black ones. He saw that they haven't changed, that he hasn't changed. Pain was mixed into the pools now, yes, but they were still the same and Kuroudo looked into them just as he had looked into them for the first time, the very moment their friendship began.   
  
Began..?   
  
_"Making my way downtown  
Walking fast, faces past   
And I'm homebound"_   
  
Kuroudo hastily picked up where he left off, the music continuing smoothly as if it had never stopped. Indeed to anyone who had not heard him practice the piece, it would seem the momentary pause, inadvertently well-placed, had been intentional and part of the performance, a wonderful respite provided by the musician in the midpoint in preparation for the close.   
  
_"Staring blankly ahead"_   
  
Kazuya sighed in relief and relaxed back into his chair when Kuroudo seemed to get a grip on reality again. He wondered what had made him just stop like that though…and what in the world was he staring at?   
  
_"Just making my way,"_   
  
Turning his head towards the direction his friend's intense stare was fixed upon, Kazuya's eyes widened and his jaw did a suicidal drop to his lap. He quickly stood up from his seat and started for the person there--   
  
_"Making my way through the crowd"_   
  
--when a hand closed around his wrist and pulled him back. He shot a pointed look down at Mitsuke who only shook his head.   
  
_"Must have need you"_   
  
Simple words broke their friendship. So simple, so few, it seemed rather pathetic to him. And if he could turn back the hands of time…   
  
_"Must have missed you"_   
  
…no, he knew that if he could turn back the hands of time, he would still have done the same thing. 'Cause it was right. But…   
  
_"And now I wonder"_   
  
…what was right? Was making everyone around him either worry or suffer right? His mother, his team…and Kyousuke. Oh god, most especially Kyousuke. The pain in his eyes was nowhere near right. No one deserved it, not him above all.   
  
_"If I can fall into the sky  
Do you think time would pass us by?  
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles  
If I can just see you"_   
  
His vision blurred as unshed tears formed in his eyes. He needed and missed Kyousuke and often wondered about the chances of their friendship surviving this. But he knew this would be the last time the other would even be remotely close to being his best friend, and he wanted to fall into the sky and let time just pass them by. Because there would and could never be an 'us', a 'them', again, even if he did manage to walk a thousand miles. And he knew Kyousuke saw this as well.   
  
_"If I can fall into the sky  
Do you think time would pass me by?"_   
  
Kuroudo closed his eyes as he poured his feelings into the words, not caring if the tears were visible now, flowing down his cheeks. He cried for himself, for Kyousuke, everyone they had hurt, their lost friendship, and for the mistakes they had made.   
  
_"Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles  
If I can just see you"_   
  
He opened his eyes and again they met Kyousuke's. He cried in gladness that his best friend had made it to his performance…   
  
_"If I can just hold you..."_   
  
…and in sadness that he would be gone after it.   
  
_"Tonight."_   
  
Kuroudo's hands flew over the keys smoothly as the song came to a close. He sat a second or so longer there and then pushed the stool back quietly, eyes fixed on Kyousuke as he stood up. It took all of what was left of his self-control not to move his hand and wipe the tears from his cheeks as he took his bow. Loud applause filled the room and he clearly heard the rustling of clothes as most of the audience stood up for him....   
  
When he straightened, the dark figure by the entrance was gone.   
  
Owari.

* * *

**Author's note/s:** XD Another KuroKyou friendship fic. Not very angsty, though. Kazie Solo and I are working up on having at least 100 fics here at the CGT category. This is just one fic closer to that goal!   
  
**Dedication/s:** None really. I suppose this is my tribute to the CGC. One year of friendship! (June) Happy Anniversary, everyone! 


End file.
